OBJECTIVE To determine whether behavioral and hormonal responses to stress in marmosets are altered by social and reproductive status. RESULTS In human neuropsychiatric disorders, chronic alterations in baseline levels of the stress hormone cortisol are often associated with altered hormonal responses to stress. I have been investigating whether chronic suppression of baseline cortisol levels in socially subordinate, reproductively suppressed female marmosets are similarly associated with altered hormonal or behavioral responses to psychological stressors. Results indicate that psychological stressors, including restraint and exposure to novelty, cause dramatic elevations in circulating levels of both cortisol and the pituitary hormone adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH), as expected, and that the magnitude of the endocrine stress response increases with increasing stressor intensity. Preliminary analyses, however, do not support the hypothesis that individual differences in baseline hormone levels, associated with differences in reproductive and social status, are accompanied by differences in the hormonal response to stress. If confirmed, these results would indicate that the neuroendocrine mechanisms mediating the endocrine stress-response, unlike those controlling baseline cortisol levels, are not highly responsive to social and reproductive factors. FUTURE DIRECTIONS In the coming months, I will complete the analysis of the hormonal and behavioral stress responses to either confirm or disprove the hypothesis that suppression of baseline plasma cortisol in socially subordinate female marmosets is associated with altered endocrine and behavioral responses to stressors. KEY WORDS dominance, subordination, ovarian cycle, adrenal cortex, adrenocorticotrophic hormone, glucocorticoids FUNDING NIMH MH53709-01 PUBLICATIONS Saltzman, W. Endocrine and behavioral responses to stress in female common marmosets social and reproductive influences. 1998. Abstracts of the Second Annual Meeting of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology 135. [A]